The aim of this group is to bring together internationally-minded people with a European affinity.Through convivial cross-cultural social gatherings we are building a vibrant circle of cosmopolitan friends who meet, talk, exchange experiences, practice their language skills, or just relax and feel at home.The first three days would be spent attending "socials" in the ballroom of their four-star hotel, through which hundreds of splashily dressed Ukrainian women would be herded over the course of tightly organized meet-and-greets lasting up to five hours.Each man was assigned his own interpreter and instructed to talk to as many women as possible, never lingering for more than 20 minutes on any one girl.

He and his next wife had two sons and stayed together 10 years before she eventually left him for another man. "I couldn't find what I'd call a decent woman, a family woman," he says in his small-town drawl. He'd scan the dozens of smiling faces and read the descriptions: "Natalya, 28, aesthetician, fond of travel, seeks husband who is generous and has sense of humor ..." Lewis had written to several of the women he found in the catalog on an on-and-off basis.Time went by and, one day, there he was: a twice-divorced, 39-year-old auto mechanic. A correspondence might peter out, he'd get busy with work, maybe he'd go out on a date with a local woman, but he'd always return to the Slavic beauties in the pages of the catalog.Phil Lewis admits he was too young when he got married the first time, to his high-school sweetheart.After they split, he put aside his hopes of being a dentist to take college pre-law classes, but dropped out after earning an associate's degree. For a lonely man shuffling toward middle age but still holding out hope that he'd share the rest of his life with a soul mate, Lewis realized his was not an enviable position. For four years, Lewis had been ordering catalogs from European Connections, an Atlanta company that introduces American men to Russian women.

Anyone born in Europe or who has lived there or has some other strong European connection is welcome. Current members include folks from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and many other countries.